Nacre or mother of pearl is the inner-shell layer of certain marine species such as pearl oyster and sea snail. The material’s characteristic lustre is amplified by movement, when its colours appear to mutate and glow. On the lower shelf you can see an assortment of mother of pearl shells including abalone and oriental oyster. Some of the shells have, on one side, a row of circular holes. These holes enable the ocean dwelling creatures to breath. The large, creamy white oriental shells were much admired and reserved mostly for good quality fan sticks and inlay work. The material is worked by first scratching away the hard, outer shell and then removing the inner laminate layers of nacre. These are matched for colour and then bonded to form a flat surface that can be cut and carved using fine blades and small saws. A fan made of mother of pearl garnered high praise at the 1851 Great exhibition, the jury report referencing ‘a remarkable piece of saw-piercing which contains no less than 1,600 holes per inch’. This ‘tour de force’ of shell carving is attributed to a ‘peasant artisan named Desiré Fleury’. On the middle shelf a selection of colourful mother of pearl fans are displayed closed. Some shades occur naturally while others demonstrate the range of tints mother of pearl could be dyed. Some of the fans are made from a type of shell known as goldfish which exhibits a distinctive, horizontal rippling pattern and strong iridescence. In the late nineteenth century goldfish was used in quantity for fan sticks, often tinted vivid shades with chemical dyes. (
To learn more about mother of pearl, press A.For Horn, press B.